Chichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in north-central Yucatan Peninsula in the Municipality of Tinum, State of Yucatan, Mexico today.Chichen Itza was an important point in the northern Maya lowlands from the Late Classic through the Terminal Classic and the first part of the Early Postclassic. The site features a variety of architectural styles, from what is called "On the origin of Mexico" and reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico to the Puuc style found among the Puuc Maya of the northern lowlands . The presence in central Mexico styles was once thought that was representative of direct migration or conquest, even in central Mexico, but most contemporary interpretations view the presence of these non-Maya styles more as a result of cultural diffusion .The ruins of Chichen Itza are federal property, and administration of the site is maintained by the Institute of Mexico, National Anthropology and History (National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH). The soil beneath the monument had been privately owned until March 29, 2010, when it was purchased by the state of Yucatan.

Northern Yucatán is arid, and the rivers all run inside underground. There are two big holes, natural sink, called cenotes, that could have provided plentiful water year round at Chichen, making it attractive for settlement. Of the two cenotes, the "Cenote Sagrado" or Sacred Cenote (also known as the Sacred Well or Well of Sacrifice), is the most famous. According to post-Conquest sources (Maya and Spanish), pre-Columbian Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into the cenote as a form of worship to the Maya rain god Chaac. Edward Herbert Thompson dredged the Cenote Sagrado from 1904 to 1910, and recovered artifacts of gold, jade, pottery, and incense, and human remains. A study of human remains taken from the Cenote Sagrado found that they had wounds consistent with human sacrifices.

AncestryChichen Itza rose to regional prominence towards the end of the Early Classic period (around 600 AD). It was, however, towards the end of the Late Classic and the first part of the Terminal Classic that the site became an important regional capital, centralizing and dominating political, social, economic and ideological in the northern Maya lowlands . The ascension of Chichen Itza roughly correlates with the reduction and fragmentation of the most important of the southern Maya lowlands.Some ethnohistoric sources [who? Claim] that in about 987 to a Toltec king named Quetzalcoatl Ce Acatl Topiltzin arrived with an army from central Mexico, and (with local Maya allies) made Chichén Itzá his capital, and a second Tula. The art and architecture of this period shows an interesting mix of Maya and Toltec styles. However, the recent re-dating of the decline of Chichen Itza (see below) indicates that Chichen Itza is largely a Late Classic site / Terminal, while Tula remains an Early Postclassic site (thus reversing the direction of the possible influence).

Political OrganizationSeveral archaeologists in late 1980 suggests that unlike previous Maya polities of the Early Classic, Chichen Itza are not governed by a single ruler or a single dynastic lineage. Instead, the political organization of the city could have been structured by a "multepal" system, which is characterized by the governor through the council composed of members of the families of the ruling elite. This theory was popular in the 1990s, but in recent years, research supports the concept of "multepal" system has been challenged, if not discredited. The current trend in Maya scholarship belief is to the more traditional model of the Maya kingdoms of the classic southern lowlands.

EconomyChichen Itza was a major economic power in the northern Maya lowlands during its heyday. Participate in waterborne trade route peninsular circumstances through its port site of Isla Cerritos, Chichen Itza was able to get the locally available resources in areas far away as central Mexico (obsidian) and southern Central America (gold).